My childhood was during the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles era and perhaps I got the influence of pizza-diction (addiction to pizza) there. Or maybe not. But when it comes to pizza, I would really claim to be a pizza monster. I always want to try the specialty of every new pizza parlor in town then try other pizza flavors when I visit again. I don't know what's with pizza but it sure does lure a lot of people to devour as much.
The very first pizza I fell in love with was Mommy's Pizza, the one with the most pizza outlets all over Davao City way back 1990's. Mommy's Pizza never had a pizza parlor/store, rather, they had stalls/booths along sidewalks, malls, schools, markets, practically everywhere. If I could remember it right, they only had two flavors and those were Hawaiian and Ham & Cheese. Their pizza was more of like home-made, so imagine the yummy-ness of the crust, but lesser of the topping compared to top selling pizzerias of course. I don't know why Mommy's Pizza stopped selling pizza but it surely is missed by few patrons like our family and some friends I know.
Like I mentioned earlier, their pizza wasn't really that one like of the biggie pizza parlors like Pizza Hut, Shakey's or Greenwich but they gave justice to the price that we paid. Mommy's Pizza was really sumptuous, and they serve your one box order fast (5 minutes to reheat the pizza, add more minutes if there are more customers ahead of you). No more waiting forever for your hunger to the satisfied.
Back in my childhood days (hey, I'm not that old, really), if my memory is still correct, they used to sell a box of pizza, either flavor, for only fifty pesos, and a box of pizza consists of eight slices. Price sounds cheap but the taste isn't. Well, fifty pesos was already considered as expensive for us back then (yes, my parents were kuripot, too). My mother used to bring two boxes whenever she had spare cash because she knows pizza monsters are waiting at home. And when the boxes are handed to us, we were like monsters pigging out.
Up until my High School years, I still enjoyed Mommy's Pizza, especially that our High School canteen had a booth of Mommy's Pizza. Now, with only one booth to cater the entire High School Department, picture in mind the long wait we had to endure just to have few slices of that pizza may it be during recess or afternoon snacks after classes. From fifty pesos when I was a kiddo, the price went to eighty pesos per box when I was in High School. That's ten pesos per slice. Imagine how much torture it was for me to be unable to afford the entire box for I could live my school days eating just pizza. (HAHAHA!) We were taught to budget our baon so we could survive the day having snacks in the morning, enough lunch, afternoon snack and get home not on foot. Going back to Mommy's Pizza, I believe they bring in more than a hundreds boxes each day for our school canteen and yet not a single slice is left everyday.
Mommy's Pizza was really huge back then. If I'm correct, I think it was only when the bigger pizzerias came to Davao City that Mommy's Pizza slowly drifted out of the scene. For some, like me and my family, and some friends I know, we still crave the taste of Mommy's Pizza (both flavors) once in a while (to me, like every other day or every 12 hours? Hehe!) Like most people say, one really won't forget first love. =)
I wonder if I could find the owner of Mommy's Pizza and order three boxes... Hm... (Mommy's ta diha! Hehe!)
